An exercise in curiosity
by Firnheledien
Summary: How Goku was captured and brought to Heaven. From the POV of a soldier.


**An exercise in curiosity**

**DISCLAIMER: **Don't have the means.

I've always wanted to write this. But I guess I have been bumming around about it for too long. From the POV of a rookie in the Western Army of Heaven (or) how they captured Goku and brought him to Heaven.

Somehow, Egan (the guy who presented Goku to Kanzeon Bosatsu) sounds like a pompous bureaucrat. . . lovely. Note the date of the mission *wink*.

***

**Tenkai Seihougun Military Log**

**Cmd. Officer: **Seikai Ryuu Ou Goujun

**Officer #: **019283-rank-23****

**DATE: **1st day of the Fourth Month, Year of the Ape

**LOCATION: **Western Lakes, Gekai

**WEATHER: **Sunny****

**MISSION TYPE: **Reconaissance 3C-level 10****

**TROOP #: **2984-11224 [medic on standby]

**EQUIPMENT CHECKLIST: **Tranquilizer darts (556), tranquilizer guns (56), maps (5), telescopes (56), nets (30), explosives (20 kg), flares (5 kg)

Log in: 0540 

Rookies: drafted and consigned. Special marching orders assigned. Drill, run-through, prep complete.

_Commander pissed off the rest. They want to pull one on him_.__

Note: Egan Gyouja's request for special attendance. Literary field research.

The god's practically a nutcase. . . .

Request for field inspection granted by cmdr. Equipment request granted. Return at 1426.

Field inspection underway. Local wildlife made contact at 1153.

They saw an animal run off into the long grass by the river. I think they plan to follow it downstream and catch it.

Pursuit and target locked at 1314.

_Feet on brush. My heart screams in the cage of my flesh and I am torn and sagging from all the running. The leather of the uniform, saturated with sweat, clings to my chafing skin. I lost a glove beyond the bend after the waterfall. Ah, hell. Now I have to go back and find it._

_I know we cannot last too long under the glare of the mortal sun that bums swifter and fiercer than the lights of Heaven. We have two choices: to wilt in the shade or withstand the heat-shimmering air. Each breath I draw is arduous: filled with the heaviness of decay and stained with impermanence. Each of our missions is a maximum of 10 hours, any more than that, and the army would be reduced to dying blooms on the merciless earth. The time here runs as if in a blur: flowers scurry to bloom and the clouds hurtle across the sky like hurricane-driven chariots. Our bodies too become caught up in the hurry and we feel the results of exertion and mortality more acutely; a bodhisattva once said that descending from Heaven is like putting a god on slow burn._

_My eyesight is blurry--the canteen is empty. I would have to swallow the whole river to soothe the blaze in my throat._

Gun fired at 1320.

_"Wahh! Watch where you point that thing!!"_

_"Over there!"_

_"It went into the long grass!"_

_"Should we mount a search operation? Snakes are sure to be crawling in such territory--"_

_"Cut the military crap, man, just go!"_

_I hurry to catch up with the other rookies as they scramble enthusiastically after that exotic animal that they wanted to catch._

_"Wait--"_

_I cannot hear anything from the groves of swaying grass. But I feel--_

_"--AAAAAAARGH!"_

_"Shit--!"_

_The blades of wild grass shear my gloveless hand like the teeth of a wildcat. I didn't know whether that was the scream of having a throat torn out or having a hand been bitten off. Was it necessary to make such a distinction? To me it was; I only had enough tincture to fend off the infection from only one bleeding stump._

_"Medic! Medic! We need the medic!"_

_My throat is raw. I bite down on an ulcer forming at the side of my cheek._

Signal flare released at 1321.

_The flare powder is green with an afterimage of red. I rush toward it, fumbling to load the dart gun._

_"HELP!"_

_"Medic!" My throat tears._

_I hear cackling laughter and a sound that seems like the snapping of dry twigs under careless feet._

_Then I realise that it is my own feet. And the sound like broken twigs is actually the sound that necks make when they are twisted so enthusiastically to one side so that they swivel like marbles._

_A head comes to rest at my feet._

_I look down, surprised. And I feel fetid breath on my neck._

Platoon decimated at 1330.

_"Captain. . ."_

_The animal roars and hisses like a thousand sticks of dynamite. I catch its savage swipes on one bloodied cheek. It comes away, claws clotted with garnet-tinted liquid and smelling of iron. Tentei knows what I might have picked up. Gods are not very tolerant of mortal illness and I could sicken and die in a space of hours._

_But I got a dart in its left side._

_The--thing--I now realise is not so much an animal but more like a beast-child. Obviously, it wasn't pleased with the flashpowder (I could see Jibun's severed hand still clutching the flare pack). But it had been very severely annoyed by all the poking and taunting from my company. Bruises where it had been handled showed how the unfortunate dead had swiped its fruit and beat it._

_"Are you hungr--"_

_--when a hundred darts are fired and the child slumps to the ground._

_The rest of the Tenkai Seihougun cluster around me. The medic dresses my wound and stabs at the scratches with an antiseptic swab._

Target acquired. Party member out from heat exhaustion and mortality at 1340.__

_"Foreign objects: clearly earth origin, commander."_

_"What?"_

_"Quartz particles in the wound, commander, and mortality. He's been overexposed."_

_"Hmm. . . too long. . . ."_

_"I beg your pardon, commander?"_

_"Hm, nothing. Next time, I want a vet on lookout. At this rate, my men are dropping like flies."_

_"Ahhh. . . Goujun-sama? A word?"_

Target under Egan Gyouja's custody.

_"I would--ahh--very much like to request to keep the child as an observation."_

_"Well--"_

_"You see, Goujun-sama, heretics shouldn't be just allowed to wander around under Heaven, unsupervised."_

_"Well--"_

_"They could be abused by malignant forces as weapons against Heaven and you know how the Emperor like to keep tabs on things down here."_

_"Well--"_

_"So how--"_

_"Take it. But make the necessary paperwork appear in my file next week; if not, you're on your own."_

_"You are too kind, Goujun-sama. I must insist that you join me for te--"_

_"Discussion closed, Egan-san."_

Log out: 1430 

**VALIDATION:** Konzen Douji


End file.
